Online Retailers Take Over Social Networking

@ASOS

Asos is on facebook

More and More, online retailers are being very dominant in social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. They have profile pages and so does a lot of their employees. They utilize these pages to stay connected to their customers and to advertise new and exciting deals or sales, launches, and what ever else they may have going on. One example that I am quite familiar with is asos.com. They actually post pictures of merchandise and the prices on their facebook profile to attract new customers. Even on the company's actual site, customers are able to share items they may like to purchase or have purchased with friends on facebook, twitter, myspace, bebo, and etc.

• This article talks a little more of the company's social networking strategies.

 http://socialmediamashup.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/asos-and-social-media/

• This page shows asos homepage that displays their facebook and twitter link

           http://www.asos.com

• This page shows their facebook profile

           http://www.facebook.com/ASOSOfficial

• Another big example is Zappos.com with their CEO on twitter and their company profile on facebook and on twitter. http://twitter.com/ZAPPOS ; http://www.facebook.com/zappos

• The big question is, all this social media and social networking, has it really helped increase their revenue or bottom line?

I am a stingy shopper. When I find a great retailer with good merchandise and good prices, I tend to keep it to myself due to the fact that I don't want a friend or associate to have the same things I have. Some customers like to be exclusive in their purchases, so does social sharing really work?


This is a hard question to answer because only about 1 in 5 marketers actually measure their return of investment on these social media sites. 

• Check out this article for reference

 http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/08/05/measuring-value-facebook-follower

Measuring the value of a Facebook follower

You now have companies developing tools to help track the RIO of social media advertising. An example of this tool is called Ominiture’s SiteCatalyst tool aims to help marketers understand how consumers are using a marketer’s Facebook page. This tool measures how users are interacting with ads, apps, and fan pages, and then shows which features are being used the most and generating the most revenue. It also shows the retailer how much of there site traffic and sales comes from Facebook compared with other channels such as e-mail, paid search and mobile advertising.

• Advertising through social media is still fairly new, so it is hard to judge the consistency of the results as of yet. What do you think? Should social media be used as a way to gain revenue?

I feel whether it brings new revenue or not, social media is good for retailers or companies in general to utilize just to stay connected with their loyal customers and with the trends of the majority. Also, companies should not just limit themselves to just twitter and facebook, but broaden their horizons to all the social networks the web has to offer as a way to stay connected to their loyal consumers or new possible customers. 

Cheap Internet Advertising at Its Best!!!!

After reading a couple of articles,I have discovered that there are many ways to advertise online from no cost to lots of money. It all depends on what your pocket can afford. For people like me that hate to spend money unless absolutely neccessary, I would utilize sites like facebook.com or twitter.com. In utilizing these sites, I would post what I am looking to sell or advertise on my wall, or compose it as an event or message and send to every one on my friends list. It has gotten me some recognition because my friends would see my advert and text or call me with questions.

For those individuals with actual business that are looking for free ways to advertise, a popular way is called article marketing. This form of internet marketing works like this and cost nothing to the individual.

"You write articles that pertain to your target market and product, submit them to article directories and bring traffic to your site through the link in the article that you'll include in your author bio."

This form of marketing brings slow traffic however.


For individuals that are looking for something more cost effective and that will bring a little more traffic than article marketing, there is another form of internet advertising called hosting your own FFA site. Its costs as little as 10 bucks a month and works like this.

"Hosting an FFA site does is it allows you to send out your daily advertising message to people who post their own ads to your site."

This form of marketing brings in more traffic and you can host up to 10 sites every month for less than 200 bucks.

Im a social networking addict, so for me facebook and twitter will always be most convenient for me, no matter how cheesy. For all you ambitious entrepreneurs looking to get your business out there, try out these two forms!!!

http://ezinearticles.com/?Internet-Advertising-Cost&id=517472

Online Marketing At Its Best

I found a great example of integrative online marketing which was executed by Sears Retailer for the back to school season. According to DMNews, Sears launched an online campaign targeted at tweens (age 8 to up to 16) called crush your style. A microsite was launched in July called crushyourstyle.com, where tweens could create fashion styles and enter to win prizes. The article on this microsite can be viewed at:

http://www.dmnews.com/sears-launches-integrated-marketing-campaign-for-tweens/article/176304/ 

The best tween fashion stylist had a chance to win 50000 dollars and a family trip, in addition to other prices. The goal of this online campaign was to draw moms and tweens to the sears.com website or to stores to do their back to school shopping with the retailer. The crush your style  theme was not only dominant on the microsite but was also implemented at the store level with instore posters and banners, also featured on Sears weekly paper ADs. I wonder how it will affect their 3rd quarter reporting. I do not think by a great amount as in them meeting their bottom line, but I think they may recover some of the money lost from the previous year. 

MKT 595 Week: Bing Vs. Google

In the battle for advertising dollars based on a recent article it is said that with the merger of Bind and Yahoo, there will be increased search traffic on theses sites to bring these companies more advertising dollars especially where smaller businesses and smaller accounts are concerned. I personally feel like its all fantasy. I have never even heard of Bing or been on there till I came across this article and to me it felt like a generic Google. Google is a search giant that I feels seems to keep expanding. I mean yea these companies will have the advantage of providing lower rates, but if the traffic on the site is not bringing revenue, isn't it better to have paid more and gotten the traffic and revenue you desire? Instead of trying to take Google out, Yahoo and Bing should have been discussing a merger with Google instead of with each other, as an addition to Google's small accounts sector or something. :)
This is the title and link of the article. CHECK IT OUT!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217201
Bing vs. Google: The Battle for Your Advertising Dollars
Think AdWords is the be-all and end-all of search engine marketing? Think again.

By Richard Stokes   |   August 10, 2010